How to manually pollinate plants? An electric toothbrush is your cheapest bet!

Who doesn't like a landscape with lush green foliage and gorgeous blooms? But it requires a lot of hard work and efficient pollinators.

This holds especially true for plants like tomatoes, peppers and chilies that rely on the process of buzz pollination. It is a simple process through which the tightly held pollen grains are released from the anthers of flowers by the rapid vibrations emitted by species such as bumblebees.

The problem arises when the pollinators are unable to access the plants. This majorly happens when plants are placed indoors. In such a case horticulturists use a tuning fork to help replicate the effects of a bumblebee.

But these tuning forks can turn out to be pretty expensive. This is when your electric toothbrush can come to the rescue. A group of scientists from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley found that using the metal tip of the electric toothbrush at the centre of an open flower for five seconds can successfully deceive the plant into self-pollinating. Electric toothbrushes are an inexpensive and more efficient alternative to tuning forks.

Also Watch: Can gardening help fight your mental blues?